Four Fables

Everyone likes a good story

The Abbey of St. Markovia

The whole party arrives in a cold room within the Abbey of St. Markovia located in the village of Krezk. Well, almost all of them; they all begin to realize some went other ways with the colored rocks: Emil went to Valaki with the green stone, Kasimir went to the Amber Temple with the blue stone, and Shep, well, he should have made it with them but is no where to be seen (or even sensed by Breath of Wind’s revenant ability). The party hopes Shep is ok but are more concerned with the grotesque, two headed viol player in the room with them.

They meet Clovin, a drunk and the head servant of the Abbot. The human priest only named the Abbot has, for over a century (and not aging), taken care of the Abbey of St. Markovia which was believed to be cursed by the villagers of Krezk for a long time. They all meet the Abbot who, at first, assumes the party is servants of Strahd since coming through the teleportation device. Once true intentions are revealed it seems the Abbot has been creating flesh golems in hopes to appease the Devil, himself, with a “perfect” bride which will return the lands of Barovia to a happy and peaceful time once again. He believes his current one is ready but just needs the most perfect bride dress. Senna is ready to take on the Abbot (who has been respectful to these new visitors this whole time) but he turns into a beautiful angel and clobbers Senna with his mace in one hit. The party, ready to fight, begins to make their attack but Ismark is able to calm everyone down. Breath of Wind realizes the item they need, the Tome of Strahd, is here in the Abbot’s dining room. The priest didn’t know this and proceeds to pull the secret cache out behind the mantle over the fireplace. Breath wishes to have it but the Abbot finds this as an opportunity to trade: the book in exchange for them to find a dress for his flesh golem, Vasilka. The group agrees and they leave the abbey as they hear strange screams, laughter, and all sorts of commotions behind locked doors further inside the temple. They also ask Clovin to take care of their friend, Shep, if he shows up sometime soon.

The heroes descend the cold mountain and into the village of Krezk. They become good friends with the Burgomaster, Dimitri, who assumes they are with the Abbot. They only say they are travelers on a quest for him. The burgomaster is able to give them warm cloaks and a place to stay after Breath of Wind is nice enough to perform a worship service for Dimitri and his wife, Anna’s, late child who died of disease just a few days ago. Talks of who will take over as Burgomaster when Dimitri and Anna passes away have been floating around the community since that was their last child who has died. To add insult to injury, someone has been grave robbing in the middle of the night to steal entire bodies for the past few months within their community.

Ireena is drawn to the natural spring to the north of the village for some reason. Locals say the pool was blessed by St. Markovia herself long ago. Ireena has a similar feeling as she did the other night after her horse died. She explained to her brother that her horse, Lo-Shid, spoke to her in her dream last night (while in Rudolph’s tower), telling her that he was in a safe place but that his name was not Lo-Shid, it was Sergei. It turns out this sense of calling was the spirit of Sergei himself, who reaches out to his beloved “Tatyana” (aka “Ireena”) who appears as a water spirit from the blessed pool. Senna has a similar experience there by the pool but senses her late half-brother, Thorin, who was almost killed but saved by his vampire lover, Hulda, who changed him into a vampire as well. Even the water spirit, Sergei, looks similar to Thorin according to Senna. Because of this similar connection, Senna prevents Ismark from stopping Ireena from touching the water spirit’s hand. Ireena exclaims, as if she has known all along yet she has never said anything like this before, “My beloved Sergei! In life, you were a prince and a man of faith. We were to be married long ago. Has this blessed pool called your spirit to me?” She reaches out and embraces the water spirit, Sergei, and, with that, she is pulled into the pool as they both look so happy; they fade from existence. Ismark is mad, and frantically tries to rescue her. But she is gone and the monk is struck by blue lightning as a thundering voice comes from the east that bellows, “She is mine!” Strahd is not happy.

All is not lost though. The party finds the pool has restoration magic to it for those who first drink from it (and only one time). Also, Ismark finds new purpose as his new weapons begin to de-age in the pool. You see, Ismark found a scroll from an ancient monk sect known as the Okina Tobira (“The Great Door”) within Castle Ravenloft’s walls while they were there. This kensei secret group of monks were sworn to prevent outsiders from entering the Amber Temple. They practiced the art of the Katana (sword) and Yumi (bow) and were trained to specifically take on spell casters since the Amber Temple has a plethora of knowledge of the occult. It seems one of these monks tried to take on Strahd many years ago and failed so now Ismark takes on this Kensei mantle and agrees to help the heroes in order to get to the Amber Temple since he is called there himself.

They get back to the cottage of the burgomaster where they had tied up the “Barovian” they captured and brought here from the Castle. Unfortunately, the thug slipped away out the back window when no one was there. The party gives up on that lead and decide to rest there for an hour, partaking in a meal provided by Anna. The locals tell them that Vallaki has the best tailors in all of Barovia and they would be able to make a beautiful wedding dress for Vasilka.

Before leaving Krezk, they see the thug they had tied up before on top of the city wall not far from the main gate. He points at Senna and casts a Vistani curse upon her, “Forever you shall be cursed! May the beasts of woods prey upon you and the wounds you receive from their jagged teeth forever scar you!” The Vistana jumps over the other side of the wall and onto a horse (with the help of another Vistana it seems who is on his own horse) and gallops off. The party takes pot shots at them but are unable to strike any of them down.

With that, the heroes travel towards the east to Vallaki. On the way they find a bundle of clothes hidden in a hallowed out tree log (peculiar…). They also come across an abandoned hut along the trail. There, they are greeted by a large pack of wolves who begin to over power the group. Breath and Ismark don’t know what to do as the wolves devour Senna before she can even try to climb up on top of the house; it seems the curse on Senna was effective. Suddenly, a werewolf peeks out from the woods and whistles at the pack of wolves; the pack scatters. Emil shows his face as the werewolf and gives them a smile and says, “You saved me, now I saved you. We’re even.” And he trudges off into the dark woods. But it’s too late for Senna. Her lifeless body lies on the ground. But not for long. Once again, the Raven Queen, has found a new follower yet Senna’s head is filled with new powers as a revenant and the whispers of the dead that distract her constantly. The undead slayer is not happy as she becomes a partial undead servant for the goddess, The Raven Queen.

The group is quiet the rest of the way to Vallaki with Senna trying to understand her new found powers. Once at the gate of Vallaki, a raven greets them, beckoning them to follow it. They trust it as they enter one of the side gates and up and down various dark alleys in order to keep from drawing too much attention to themselves. They arrive at the Bluewater Inn and are escorted quickly inside by Urwin Martikov, their wereraven friend. They are given refuge that night in the raven’s loft that is only found by a secret door within the inn. Urwin explains that with the Wachter’s all but dead, missing, or imprisoned (the Wachter boys are), the Baron is blaming the adventurers for the tiger attack (Rudolph’s tiger that went on a rampage inside the town a few days ago) and the Wachters and their cult. Rudolph and the rest of the party are wanted criminals in Vallaki. When asked about a wedding dress, Urwin mentions that the Baroness had a beautiful wedding dress ready for Stella Wachter who was supposed to be wedded to their son, Victor (though that never came to fruition). With that only lead, the group prepares for tomorrow an infiltration into the Baron’s home, grab the dress, and get out of town quickly.

The Hourglass

The heroes continue to explore the castle finding it’s interesting denizens: zombies, betraying Barovian thugs, creepy crawly hands, wights, and much more. At one point, Kasimir says he is called by his sister in the crypts and he runs off downstairs. The group chases after him and are greeted by a banshee within his sister, Patrina’s, crypt. Many are struck down but the group is able to stop the banshee from destroying them. Kasimir, when he comes to, explains to them in his grief that his sister was stoned by him and his elven brothers for fear that her betrothal to Strahd those many years ago would come to fruition. In response, Strahd orders Rahadin (a dusk elf himself) to kill every dusk elf woman and cut the ears off all of the male elves as punishment. He believes with her spell book (now in the hands of Shep) and the powers that are in the Amber Temple that gave Strahd his vampirism will resurrect her to her true elven self.

Shep breaks down as well in this conversation, telling of his story: His family was from Berez and his parents were killed by Strahd for being followers of the Raven Queen, the fire from the vampire’s spell destroyed his eyes in the process. Kasimir says that’s impossible because Berez has been in ruins for almost 200 years. Shep realizes when his family was killed and he was transported through the mists to Erryes, the timeline jumped 200 years into the future. Kasimir figures that he must be Ulrich’s boy, the burgomaster of Berez long ago who was killed for killing a woman Strahd had favored and wanted to turn into one of his vampire brides.

The group find many traps along the way but also a few new interesting items: a shimmering short sword, a silver statuette, a black mace, and Patrina’s spell book (along with some coins). At one point in their rest in the dungeon Shep is almost killed by a pair of wights and almost welcomes death for the fact that he feels no one is listening to him anymore. However his new mace calls to him and he uses it’s power to drive the undead away by himself. A new resolve is on the boy’s face, as if he has aged a few years.

Also during their rest, Deckard is greeted by an invisible voice who claims to be on his side. She claims to be Ezmerelda, the apprentice of Rudolph Van Richten. She doesn’t totally trust them but gives them some clues on where to go to get out of the castle. “Indigo and green are safe colors when it comes to the hourglass,” is all she tells him. She says not to tell the rest of his crew about her until she can totally trust them. She says she has been here for two days, exploring the entire castle to become familiar with it when she decides to strike down Strahd herself. Deckard agrees and she is gone.

Thanks to the new directions that Deckard has, they continue to travel through the castle. They also save a Vallakian man named, Emil, from the dungeons who claims he was chased by wolves, captured by Strahd’s guards, tortured and thrown in this cell. He gives aid to the heroes as they travel throughout the dungeons.

The heroes finally come across an hourglass hanging from the ceiling; ;the sand within it has stopped. One of the kids listening to Razzle Frazz’s stories in the present day points out that the same hourglass is hanging on the storyteller’s wall but looks a little different compared to what it was in Strahd’s castle. Also within the room is a brazier with strange colored rocks near it and a riddle written on the hourglass. It seems this will transport them to various places throughout Barovia. The riddle says:

“Cast a stone into the fire:
Violet leads to the mountain spire
Orange to the castle’s peak
Red if lore is what you seek
Green to where the coffins hide
Indigo to the master’s bride
Blue to the ancient magic’s womb
Yellow to the master’s tomb”

Deckard just says, “Trust me,” and casts the indigo stone into the fire and is teleported away. The rest fall suit (including the knocked out “Barovian” Ghrakis is carrying with them) but, with only a few remaining, Breath of Wind witnesses Emil turn into a werewolf and he seems genuinely appreciative of their help getting him out. He casts the green stone in and is gone. Kasimir says after that, “You know I must do this,” as he grabs a blue stone and says, “Tell Shep I trust him with my sister’s spell book, but I must go to the Amber Temple and find the way to save my sister,” and with that, he’s gone too.

Breath hears footsteps from beyond the door as he tries to figure out which stone to throw in. He panics, grabs the indigo one, throws it in the fire as the door opposite the room opens showing the devil, Strahd’s, cruel face.

A Dinner Invitation to Castle Ravenloft

Before leaving Krezk, Rudolph apologizes to Deckard. After an acceptance to his behavior, Rudolph offers to help revive Tornado in a timely fashion so they can still get on the road before dark. After reviving the ranger’s once again zombie cat, Rudolph mentions that his own saber tooth tiger, “Moongrass,” (a familiar tribe name to Breath of Wind) was once a mother not long ago though her only cub that survived while here in Barovia went missing. He believes that Tornado was in fact the cub of Moongrass (though Moongrass doesn’t acknowledge the undead creature now). Rudolph, after his conversation with Deckard, realizes that Breath of Wind may be undead himself. So he talks to the catfolk and asks what his plans are if he gets his friends out of Barovia and vanquishes Strahd. Breath says the Raven Queen will most likely take him to the unknown and he will finally be put to rest. Rudolph offers to help Breath in that situation if it comes to it, Breath “appreciates” the offer as best as he can.

Within a half hour’s time, the group arrives near the gates of Krezk. Senna Loot’sko is able to inspire the group by telling of her past family issues with vampires and hopes that they will come together as a unified group after all they have been through. A slow clap and “Bravo!” comes from around the corner as the group comes upon a dignified dusk elf dressed in a nice, ornate black suit standing in front of a large, black carriage. He exclaims how great Senna’s speech is and introduces himself as Rahadin, the head chamberlain of Lord Strahd Von Zarovich. He bows and gives the group the letter they “dropped” (the one burnt by Shep) as it is an invitation to dinner with the Count at Castle Ravenloft. The group, ready to fight, now notice a group of werewolves (the same ones Ireena saw earlier that morning) surrounding them in the woods and threatening the Vallakians that they were escorting. Realizing there is no way around this “dinner invite,” the group agrees as long as the Vallaki servants and Stella Wachter are brought to Krezk. Rahadin agrees and orders the werewolves to escort the scared Vallakians with the party’s letter from Baron Vargas in their hands.

The heroes are taken by a jovial elf many hours into the night towards Castle Ravenloft. Many various dark creatures (Scarecrows, wolves, evil druids, twig blights, Vistani, etc.) greet and bow before the carriage and Rahadin. Deckard takes out one of the twig blights with his crossbow but is greeted by various (presumably dead) voices within his head thanks to Rahadin. It disturbs and hurts him as he becomes quiet for the rest of the trip.

They arrive at the castle, rain soaked, as they enter the grand entrance of Strahd’s grand home. There they have dinner with the vampire himself, Strahd (or so they think). He entertains them with organ music, food from their own specific home in Erryes and he pleads with them that he is a just ruler of Barovia. He wishes two things: one of these 5 heroes that came from Erryes to become his heir to his throne and to have his Tatyana back, a soul he believes inhabits the body of Ireena. She refuses, They disrespect him in his own home and he seems to be very upset by this. The candle lights extinguish all the rooms and they hear every door, portcullis, and drawbridge close within the castle and outside the courtyard. It seems they must now find a new exit and leave this terrible place.

While traveling they are attacked by creatures of shadow, flying swords, (even a Strahd mannequin that “attacked” the party) and swarms of bats as the murderous castle seems to be very hard to take even an hour breather. They also come in contact with Lief, Strahd’s accountant. He is a prisoner here and says he wouldn’t make it out there, plus he’s chained to his desk. He tries to ask the heroes how much they are worth in gold in order to best account for Strahd’s future wealth. The heroes also notice many adventurer name’s above their own in a thick ledger he is working on. They don’t seem to appreciate that and they interrogate him for information but he isn’t too forthcoming. They do take some of the gold and platinum from his room including an interesting and magical book to look at later.

The 8 heroes continue east further into the castle as Kasimir feels going out the front door might be too dangerous; they also find a large window on the west wall of the castle to be reinforced with magic so going out certain windows might be too hard. The wizard did hear from his sister that Strahd is a powerful wizard as well and might have the ability to teleport to various places in Barovia so easily from within his castle.

They happen upon two very unique zombies sitting in chairs as they are attacked near what appears to be a broken chapel.

Explosions and Explanations

The group traveled west towards Vasilli Van Holtz’s tower. On the way they are almost ambushed by mud soaked men with stone axes. Their guttural language was unknown to the party but they were able to make peace with them before an attack happened; both groups retreated.

The mist makes it hard to see and the group becomes lost in the woods finding themselves north of Lake Zarovich. There they see an elk transform into a man who yells at them, “You thought you could take me in my weakened state? You’ll never take me and my eldritch might!” He casts a lightning bolt that knocks Ismark unconscious but Ireena is able to calm him down before a fight truly begins. He doesn’t know his name but the only word that comes to him in his maniacal monologue is the country name, Cush. Breath of Wind, convinced this is their ally according to Madam Eva’s fortune reading, is able to calm him down and find out what’s wrong with him. He invites them into his magical pocket dimension further north in the woods where the culture and amenities of the world of Erryes is littered throughout the many roomed mansion. Breath finds that his mind is broken and a specific spell, “Greater Restoration,” will cure him (but only if they let his “Mind Blank” spell finish for the day since he casts it on himself every morning and that protects him from such restoration magic). Before they can make anymore leeway with him he shouts at them to get out, threatening the fight all over again, his mind is truly broken. The group leaves back into the woods and marks their whereabouts for later on, swearing that they would restore the mad mage’s senses.

After an almost deadly fight with horrible scarecrows, the party limps to the lake where the tower is. They try the door but find it booby trapped with a lightning bolt that almost kills some of them. Thinking that’s the only trap, they check what they think is Vasilli Van Holtz’s wagon parked outside, and are treated to another large explosion in their face as hundreds of alchemist’s fire that is lined within the wagon are ignited once Deckard tries to enter the wagon door after picking it’s lock.

With that another death is observed: Lo’Shid, Ireena’s horse, as the explosion guts him. Picking themselves up, the group moves into the tower (after figuring out it’s puzzle). Ireena and Ismark mourn the horse’s death, with Ismark emptying all of his bottles of wine into the lake, swearing to no longer be a drunk that hurts his step-sister and new friends. He mentions to Senna at one point that his efforts must be turned to meditation or else what’s left of his family will be totally gone. The group finds an antimagic field placed on the tower along with strange clay golems that lift the small elevator inside up and down the various floors. They explore Vasilli’s home, finding not much to it except a living quarters on the fourth floor and a severed Vistana head inside a chest. Also a strange, perhaps magical, set of plate armor is found and taken by Ireena.

During their rest there in the early morning, those on watch find that a group of wolves are interested in the horse carcass outside. Ireena checks on them on her watch and notices a pack of them are eating Lo’Shid with the Alpha protecting them. What’s strange is that the large wolf even speaks and says, “This is our prey and you will be ours as well if you interfere.” Upset, but feeling outnumbered, she backs away into the tower, sobbing. The wolves leave after their bellies are full.

They finish their rest there, with Breath of Wind now contemplating of removing the glove on his hand forever as it’s magic doesn’t seem to work inside the tower. Senna says he doesn’t have to use it but Breath thinks with its power it will be necessary to kill Strahd, so he puts it back on. As they go outside the glove (an obviously cursed sentient artifact) hurts him shouting that he must never enter that tower again or else.

Vasilli, in his actual wagon, arrives at the tower after their rest. He claims the muddy road got him stuck for the night. The group tells what happened and he says the wagon that blew up was most likely Ezmerelda’s, an ex-pupil of his. Upon entering his tower he fully explains who he is. He removes his disguise and says his name is Rudolph Van Richten, a vampire hunter who has tasked himself to kill Strahd. He thinks the party is on to something good with the tools needed to destroy Strahd. But he is very upset that they have aligned themselves with the dusk-elf, Kasimir, as the dusk elves are known to be in league with the Vistani (who he hates extremely). He realizes the only way to prove Kasimir’s innocence is to ask the dead Vistani head that he has in his chest. He goes outside and casts “Speak with Dead” on it and interrogates it. He is able to deduce that Kasimir doesn’t work for Strahd. He is on neutral terms now with the party and says that if they get the tools they have mentioned to defeat Strahd he will help by finding a “Greater Restoration” scroll for the Mad mage. Expecting an exchange for this, Rudolph just says he wishes to help by seeing if they are truly here to defeat the devil. Though he doesn’t show it, he seems hopeful for these heroes. The group gathers to leave for Krezk and begin their travels there.

Tea Time!

The group spent the night in the church, consoling the villagers there and Father Lucien. The next morning they are able to buy some new equipment and “interesting” new toys from Blinksy’s Toy shop (also getting some information from Blinksy while they are there).

Later that day they are honored guests at the Festival of the Blazing Sun. It goes off as best it could…until the rain came and doused the fire spectacles. People are upset but most surprising to everyone is Lars, a town guard, who bursts out laughing due to the mishap. The baron exclaims he must be arrested for insolence. He is dragged away, manacled and in shame. Shep tries to liven the party back up by casting a fire spell on the wicker sun and is called a witch by the villagers. Izek insists he must be arrested for casting magic and the party is about to fight their way out. Thankfully, though, Ismark’s quick thinking and tongue is able to bribe Izek to let them go. Izek still “arrests” Shep and takes them all away. Once the money has exchanged hands he lets the boy go and insists they leave their city by this afternoon, the party agrees.

Before leaving they go the Wachterhaus to still visit Lady Fiona. Shep notices the eye he drew was on this house (due to the mysterious man who followed him a few days ago). They enter and are greeted warmly by Lady Fiona and her servants (though not Shep’s mysterious follower). She invites them for tea since they have to leave so early and they all oblige (Deckard is even able to get a cup of an exotic drink to the Barovians: coffee) and try to get information from her. Not much is gleaned, except the fact that they were drugged from their drinks!

The whole party falls asleep with Deckard waking first in what appears to be a cultist’s sacrificial chamber. He wrestles a dagger away from Lady Fiona and stands to wake up his friends. A skirmish breaks out between the party and Lady Fiona and her cultist “book club.” An imp appears to fight at one moment but is severely hurt from Ismark and he flies away with his tail tucked between his gangly legs. Fiona shouts that her master, Strahd, deserves this town more so than the baron and that they won’t get in her way. But by the power of the Raven Queen and the rest of the party, they vanquish all of cultists. Deckard, seeing the fight seemingly over, steps out of the secret room and a crew of undead skeletons breaking from the ground assault the group immediately. After taking care of them the group finds Senna and wakes her up.

They bandage their wounds downstairs for an hour and proceed up into the Wachterhaus, exploring its seemingly empty grounds. They gain some treasures and find some letters written to Fiona’s ancestors from one simply named “Rictavio.” They also confront the chef and maid of the house who were asleep. They say they never knew about the cultists downstairs and Lady Fiona’s true activities. The party believes them and agrees to give them safe passage to Krezk because if they stay, the Wachter boys will have them hanged for betrayal.

Noticing it’s late at night (and that they said they would have left the town by now) they quickly find the rest of their group at the western gate leading out of town. The others mention that a large saber tooth tiger was running a muck after the festival, though it never killed any villagers, only 2 vistana. It turned out it was their new friend’s pet, Vasilli Van Holtz (the carnival master from the Bluewater Inn). He thanked the other party membesr for getting him out of town with his pet without troubles and says there is a tower to the northwest of here that he plans on holing up at if they ever want to visit him.

The group, under the cover of night (and hopefully Izek not following them), travels the western road toward Krezk.

Him

The gang is summoned by an old man in the woods not far from the winery. They talk to him, cautiously, as they find out he is Davian Martikov, the owner of the winery (he is accompanied by a few others from his family). He explains that a bunch of druids came into his winery and took over the place as he and his family ran out in a hurry a few days ago. The party agrees to help them.

The heroes approach the house and are greeted by dozens of deadly blights. They run into the house and find many more blights along with the crazed druids who seem to be poisoning the caskets of wine. With the help of a few swarms of ravens inside the winery, the group is able to vanquish the blights and the druids (though one gets away). They are able to take on the 60 some enemies because Shep and Ireena find that one of the druids had a magic staff that controlled the blights. Once they broke it the remaining blights collapse in a heap of branches.

The family is thankful and shares with the heroes that they are secretly wereravens themselves, sworn to protect this land from Strahd. Breath of Wind references the Raven Queen but they mention they follow the practices of Mother Night who no longer hears their prayers. They also mention that the winery will be inactive from now on as the 3 magical seeds that gave life to their crops was stolen by these druids. 2 of their last known whereabouts were taken to the ruins of Berez and Yester Hill (the third is unknown). The party agrees to search for them and helps the delivery of wine get back to Vallaki (with a very happy and drunk Ismark on the back of the cart).

While they travel north to Vallaki, Senna explains what happened to her in Vallaki. She met Lady Fiona Wachter, who she did not get along with well but found out that the Wachters aren’t a fan of the Baron and his leadership. Senna also found out from Nikolai that his sister, Stella (the one who is mentally disturbed), was supposed to be wed to Victor, the Baron’s son, but that fell through a few months ago when she started acting like she was a cat.

After leaving, Senna spent her day with Blinksy and his toy shop. He was kind to her (though his toys were quite creepy) and his monkey, Piccolo, warmed up to her as well. In her travels throughout the town she became quite soaked and Blinksy offered her a red dress as an apology for his untrained monkey who stole her purse earlier. She agreed and got to know Blinksy learning that he is in search of Fritz Von Weerg’s (his mentor) greatest invention, a clockwork man that he believes to be in Castle Ravenloft. As Senna looked at all the dolls, however, she noticed one that was not for sale that looked exactly like Ireena (and her). When questioned about it Blinksy admitted that Izek threatens to close his toy shop if he doesn’t continuously make these dolls for the captain of the guard. Every month Izek gives more details of what he is looking for; this made Senna uneasy as the toy shop owner didn’t know why he wanted these.

That night, after dinner with Blinksy, Senna strolls back to the inn while a billow of smoke and fire looms overhead on the opposite side of town. On her way a vampire spawn draws her into an alleyway and introduces himself as Escher. He bites her, marking her neck and claims, “I will have you later, my lady. You are ravishing.” She slumps down, horrified, as he sprints away. A guard comes to help her and runs after the vampire spawn. Senna, scared for her life, finds an abandoned home and spends the night there. She returns that morning to go with the party to the winery.

Upon arriving in Vallaki with the wine, the Martikovs reward the party for their help along with the Baron at his home with each hero asking for a specific reward. Examples of some of those rewards are: gold, an unlimited wine ticket when staying at any tavern in Vallaki, a new toy from Blinky’s shop, and a written consent of safe passage into the walled city of Krezk (as Ireena and Ismark feel that this town isn’t safe for them to stay at either). They plan to leave the next day but are asked by Vargas to be his honored guests tomorrow afternoon for the Festival of the Blazing Sun. Also, Senna received an apology letter from Lady Fiona and an invitation to dinner tomorrow (along with her friends too) after the festival at the Wachterhaus. They realize their time in this town is not yet over. Senna was worried about her hair falling out from previous nightmares throughout the night and that some kind of curse was on her. Thankfully one of the rewards they got was an elixir that cured that of her.

They get to the church to see how Father Lucien is. Everyone is happy as a small service is being held in honor to the Morninglord of the restoration of the bones of St. Andral. Suddenly, a swarm of bats looms over the pale moon, enveloping it into darkness and screeches. From the swarm a single bat descends and transforms into a misty figure, shrouded in fog. A gaunt handsome man steps down onto the road as people begin to run in fear. The beautiful lord looks at a woman and says, “Fetch me a glass.” Scared, but quiet, the woman nods her head and walks into a house and begins to assault a man inside for his bottle of wine. She screams, “Give it! Give it!” Struggles and grunts can be heard and a crash as a pool of blood spills out of the house. The woman, with torn dress and a black eye, steps out onto the street with a bottle of wine and a glass as she begins to clean the blood off the long stem. She pours it for the heavenly dressed man and he takes it from the peasant woman, sipping it while looking at the heroes who are now standing in the entrance of the church. This is Strahd von Zarovich, the devil, himself.

In one hand, he holds the glass of wine that he swirls around and sips – its crimson contents clinging to the sides of the glass. In the other hand, he fiddles with a familiar deck of cards, drawing them, regarding them, discarding them. He looks to you. Father Lucien tells the party not to leave the church as they are safe from the devil’s minions and the count himself.

“I should have known you’d find yourselves here, despite all my efforts. It appears you are guided here by," he flips another card, “fate. What a fascinating concept. For time eternal, I believed myself to be the master of everything in my life – before and after my ascension into the night. Outsiders have come and died; what’s consistent is that I get what I want. Ireena, you will be mine, no matter what you might say or do. Satisfaction will be mine in time, for I control fate, as I control everything. But you,” Strahd drops the cards and wine to the ground, staining the woman’s dress a bloody red, "you have threatened to shatter that. My beloved, Tatyana, will know her place, in my arms once again for eternity. I’m driven forward unlike any creature this world has ever known. The pain and suffering of my people can no longer be ignored. The world will see me rise up from the ashes of this city (if you so choose to take me on) and know the Von Zarovich family return with fury and hellfire at their backs. I step out into the world with the sole purpose of it’s destruction, and how does the world greet me? They send me a rag tag bunch of vagrants who know nothing more than fighting and murder. You have no understanding of what I have lost, but after today you’ll begin to feel but a fraction of my pain. We will prove it so with a simple decision for you.” He calls out, “Freek, Myrtle, come to me, my children.”

Before you can find the children you saved at the Bonegrinder Mill, they are next to the vampire lord, in a trance. The count places his hands on the heads of the two children, “For not giving me Ireena, this is your punishment, you decide: which of these two will live?”

The party is quiet as Shep’s eyes well up with tears. The catfolk is the only one who takes action and answers with an attack spell at the lord which seems to evaporate into darkness as it gets close to Strahd. The vampire scoffs, “If that’s your answer then…” He tosses both kids to the shadows as 4 vampire spawn from the coffin maker’s home descend and swarm the children. A short yelp is heard, and all that is left is clothes and dry bones when they finish eating.

“You have doomed these children to the bonegrinder as their original intent was. You could have saved at least one of them if you had proper manners.” The hag, Morgantha, appears suddenly before Strahd, kneeling and asking for her ingredients. The vampire nods and the woman collects the bones of the children and disappears once again.

Strahd turns around with his retinue of undead and floats a letter over to you the party. “With that out of the way, I hope we can be more…civilized. All is forgiven, I would suggest to take the letter.” Shep, with anger in his wet eyes, lights the note on fire with Strahd leaving the city by the eastern gate as he doesn’t seem to notice the young warlock’s response. Once again, there is quiet and eerie calmness in the poor city of Vallaki with only a priest sobbing in the streets.

The Burgomaster of Vallaki

Razzle Frazz almost forgets about the others that aren’t with the main group as he recalls what Deckard was doing during that time before they got to the coffin maker’s home. “Deckard had a hard choice to make that day that changed his entire view on the undead.”

—

Earlier in the day Deckard is able to resurrect his animal companion with the new party gold from the Vistani. However, Tornado has changed, it is now a zombie cat! Deckard decides to accept his companion as is and realizes that maybe not all undead are evil.

Back at the coffnmaker’s home, Ghrakis chases after Henrik. Meanwhile, the rest of the party is attacked by six vampire spawn who have holed up in the coffin maker’s home. Ismark holds his own for the first time as he drunkenly strikes down with fury on the undead with his fists. Even Zombie Tornado is able to help once Deckard calls it to his aid. However, the fight is too deadly; realizing they must escape immediately with the bones, the party is able to fend off some of the undead, call for help from the local militia and run away. The vampires retreat as well while Izek arrives with a retinue of guards and proceeds to burn down Henrik’s home.

While escaping, some of the party meets Baron Vargas Vallakovich, Burgomaster of Vallaki. He invites them into his home to help and says that Izek and his guards will take care of their problem. “All will be well!” as he says.

Breath of Wind and Shep take the bones back to the church of St. Andral to restore the crypt, but they don’t realize that they are being followed by one of the vampire spawn that attacked them earlier. The vampire tries to take the bag of bones and runs away but somehow the two followers of the Raven Queen are able to destroy the evil undead. But in the process, Wind uses a different weapon than what his glove had given him and in turn his hand begins to be devoured from the inside by the glove itself, screaming within his mind of his folly for using an inferior weapon. They return the bones, Father Lucian is thankful and performs the ritual to the Morninglord. He says these are holy grounds once again. Those two sleep the night there, peacefully.

The others get to know the burgomaster who assures them that Izek will take care of the vampires. He invites them to stay the night and they do so. They hear strange noises coming from the attic during the night as well. The next morning, during breakfast, the baron and his family are introduced to everyone. Vargas tells them he is worried about his upcoming festival of the Blazing Sun and not having the wine needed for the celebration that is to happen tomorrow afternoon. The party agrees to go to the Wizards of Wine Vineyard not far from here to see what happened to the recent delayed wine delivery in return for various prizes they each ask for. He asks they need to make it back by tomorrow morning. Before leaving, the whole party meets up at the burgomaster’s home. Izek is also there having breakfast and for some reason is eyeing up Ireena a lot and is even cordial to her (unlike the others). Ghrakis mentions that Izek took Henrik and put him in the stocks for colluding with the “Devil.”

As they leave the mansion, Shep bumps into a young man (maybe 16) who seems to be in his own world and harsh with Shep. The maid says that’s Victor, Vargas and Lydia’s son, who locks himself in the attic all the time. Shep, interested in what the young man has (and a bit ticked at how rude he was), uses his raven to look up in the attic window to see what Victor is hiding. There he sees a few skeletal cats lounging about (mysterious magic is afoot!) and 3 children standing in the corner of the attic room which is covered with various books on a table.

Shep notices something else: when almost at the inn to gather the group and the wagon from the Martikov family, the boy notices that they are being followed by a strange man with a sword, hand crossbow and dark hood. Shep confronts the man in an alley alone and tries to figure out who he is by talking to him while invisible. The man, surprised by Shep’s magic, sneers at him and leaves. Shep follows the man to a house on the other side of town and the man just laughs at the boy as he goes inside. Shep inscribes an eye on the fence post next to the house to convey that “he’ll be watching him.”

The group gathers to leave and before they hit the road, Senna returns (after being gone for the past 30 some hours), a bit frazzled, but not harmed. She says, “Don’t ask,” and proceeds to change into her travel clothes and armor and joins the group as they travel southwest out of town towards the winery. On the way, Shep reveals that he has an old map of Barovia in his belongings (though it is a bit sparse with names on it). As they come to a fork in the road and find a sign that says “Southeast: Berez,” Shep has a sense of home and belonging as he looks down that road towards Berez; he ignores the feeling for now. As they continue, the group is also attacked by strange little creatures made of wood along with a howling human druid who casts destructive magic at them. Before they vanquish them, the strange man yells, “IT’S GOING TO RAIN! HAHAHA!” What’s eerie is that he’s right, it begins to drizzle as they arrive at the front of the Wizard of Wines Winery an hour later.

The Town of Vallaki

The group stays the night in the inn while Senna stays at the Wachterhaus and Deckard and Ghrakis end up in stocks for the night. The stocks are full of women, men, and children, and Ghrakis (though a bit fearful at first) meets a new friend who seems to know their names through his own dreams. The dusk elf’s name is Kasimir Velikov, he was locked up for being in Vallaki without a Vistana escort while he was purchasing goods for his clan of elves. That night, “Wind” checks on Senna, Deckard, and Ghrakis and even though they are in weird situations, they say they are fine.

The next day, Ghrakis gets the feeling that Kasimir might be their “ally” against Strahd since he is a wizard and knows the names of his friends. He agrees to help them if they escort him to the Amber Temple soon, they agree.

They then leave the children from the Bonegrinder with the local church. At Saint Andral’s Church they meet Father Lucian and a couple other orphans. He agrees to watch the children from Barovia village if they return St. Andral’s missing bones; St. Andral (which turns out to be the original name of the angel of Pelor, Malakiy, before he became an angel) is a saint who’s crypt is in the church to the Morninglord . The party finds that Milivoj (an orphan who digs the graves for the church) stole the bones himself and sold them to the coffin maker, Henrik, in order to feed his brother and sister. Ghrakis is grateful to the stubborn Milivoj and says he’ll teach him tomorrow morning how to properly swing a sword.

The party begins towards the coffin maker’s house but are interrupted by a Vistana named Arrigal, who does not seem pleased that Kasimir is in the town. “Wind” recognizes him to be the same man who offered the party a letter to come into Barovia for help way back in Midia less than a week ago. They demand answers, he playfully tells the group that Strahd is the one who tells him what to do and it was his job to bring them here. Arrigal seems more concerned that Kasimir hasn’t introduced his new “friends” to his brother, Luvash. With some awkward gestures, Kasimir, in fear, tells the party for them to go meet Luvash at the Vistani camp outside of the town.

They travel an hour away into the woods outside of the town and come to the Vistani camp and Dusk Elf clan homes. Luvash is beating a man within an inch of his life for failing to watch his daughter, Arabelle, who has gone missing. Kasimir introduces them and Luvash insists that if Kasimir wants to leave with his new friends and travel outside of his home, he must find Arabelle. Wind is very upset with how they have been treated here in Barovia and even with much warning from Kasimir, it’s not enough as Arrigal strikes him down through the throat and knocks Wind unconscious. It’s not enough as they see Wind’s wounds begin to knit together and they all realize he is a revenant. Wind tries to attack when he gets up and Luvash sighs, “Now one of your brothers must die, Kasimir.” The dusk elf defuses the situation by casting “Sleep” on the tabaxi. He falls asleep and swears that they will find Arabelle immediately and to spare his friends. Luvash agrees and they drag their catnapping friend away to Kasimir’s home.

Kasimir explains to a more calm party that his whole entire race was killed by Strahd, all that is left is about 20 male dusk elves that live here, under the “protection” of the Vistani who camp here. Patrina, Kasimir’s sister, is locked away in the crypts of Castle Ravenloft thanks to Strahd and he wishes to free her. The only way to do so would be to go to the Amber Temple south of here. The heroes recognize “amber doors” in their fortunes and realize there is a connection there so they know another place for them to go is south toward the mountains where this temple is that Kasimir is set to go to as well.

The group decides to find Arabelle and their tracking leads them north to lake Zarovich. Before getting there Wind, trips over a severed hand with a magical glove on it. He takes it of the now skeletal hand and puts it on, feeling called to it. No longer able to take the glove off, the catfolk doesn’t mind as he feels that his glove is the most powerful weapon at his disposal.

When arriving at the lake the group sees In the distance a lone figure fishing and tosses a bag in to the water. Realizing that the bag had a person in it and that a strange water beast was on its way to feast upon the bag, the heroes grab a row boat and get there just in time to kill the fisherman (thanks to Wind’s new Versatility Glove that summoned a heavy crossbow that shot lightning bolts from it) , a crocodile and fend off a swarm of quippers. They save Arabelle who was in the bag and she demands to be sent home.

The heroes take her back and Luvash is very glad to see her. Kasimir is even able to convince Arabelle that Arrigal doesn’t need to kill the Tabaxi as he swore he would when they returned. The Vistani are happy and give them a treasure, explain that the potions that Vistani try to sell adventurers to get out of the fog are fake, and that Kasimir is free to go, if only for a few days. Kasimir understands that Luvash will kill his brothers if he’s gone too long.

The group returns to the Inn to check in and the majority of the group. They meet a half elf gentleman named Vasili von Holtz who is living at the inn too. He claims to be a ringmaster of a traveling carnival and claims to be from Midia. He isn’t too much help to the group but does mention what he knows of the land around here. He mentions that there used to be an order of knights to the silver dragon that used to live in the now abandoned mansion not far to the southwest of here called Argynvostholt. He takes his leave with a bag of apples (and a wolf steak hidden inside as well) and wishes the heroes “Good luck” and that if they ever want to hear more of his weird traveling tales to stop by tonight here at the inn to hear his stories.

The party finally arrives at Henrik’s (the coffin maker) home that night. They force their way in as he denies them entry at first. He’s very scared and gladly tells the heroes where the bones of St. Andral are. Wind grabs part of the set of bones hidden away and begins to look in the junk room upstairs for the other half. Once doing so, Henrik’s fear sets in and runs out of the home screaming as Wind’s hand is grabbed by a strange creature from within one of the boxes as it punches out towards the catfolk!

Old Bonegrinder

The party continued Northwest winding through Barovia. They come to a windmill not far from the trail and, remembering of the Dursts deed to the windmill from the village of Barovia, they go to explore it. Upon entering the first floor they are greeted with sweet smells of the dream pastries being cooked. But before indulging themselves in it they come across small, human bones littered throughout the floor of the kitchen and children’s teeth found outside of the windmill. They assume the worst and hear a cackle from upstairs.

They go upstairs and are greeted by Morgantha, the woman who sold dream pastries to them the day before. Deckard is quick to draw his crossbow but the women upstairs startle them all and Morgantha sees it as an opportunity to get the drop on the party. A battle is made inside but the 3 women are quick to magically disappear. The party goes further upstairs to find 2 children, Freek and Myrtle, encased in boxes. They tell them their parents sold the brother and sister to these hags in order to buy more dream pastries. Disgusted, they break them out of their prison and begin to take them outside.

Ghrakis is the first to go outside and is surprised by the 3 hags who lightning bolt him 3 times in the chest. No one understands how he survived those hits and wasn’t outright killed. The battle continued with plenty of disappearing acts. It wasn’t until Tornado, Deckard’s snow leopard, is killed and harvested for “ingredients” and Senna being turned into a living ingredient (A FROG) by the hags that the heroes realize they must run. Both parties seem to call it a draw and 2 of the women run into the woods, the third is no where to be seen. In the midst of the fight, the polymorphed Senna makes a quick and tactical decision before the party runs and hops into the unconscious half orc’s pocket. When he gets up, the frog travels along with him not knowing.

After some deducing, the party realizes Senna is the frog. They take the children and their companions and continue their travels with the windmill burned down before them. But before leaving they find 4 mysterious monoliths that depict cities of the land of Barovia that are linked to a specific season (Winter, Autumn, Spring, and Summer).

The group travels until nightfall as they arrive in the walled city of Vallaki. After some persuasion and acknowledging some obvious racism towards non-humans from the guards, they are able to get in. They travel to the Blue Water Inn for some rest. Senna uses her false identity as a beautiful merchant woman and becomes chummy with Karl and Nickolai Wachter, nobles of this town. She is offered rooming at their house for the night and gets Deckard to fake an argument in order to look like she can’t go with Nickolai. But it backfires and Karl threatens Deckard for “abusing this poor woman.” Deckard threatens him back with his crossbow and Karl smacks him with his glove. A punch flies, a table turns, and pretty soon Grhakis, Deckard and the Wachter boys are having a classic tavern fight with each other.

Bells sound and the Wachter boys smile as they begin to stop fighting. Deckard attempts to remedy the situation with a bribery of wine but it’s too late. Quickly, 4 guards come inside to stop the fight and Nickolai points to the two adventurers and a large, bald headed quiet man grabs the ranger and barbarian to arrest them. What’s extra creepy about this large soldier is his right arm is totally red, veiny, and leathery (as that of a warthog). His touch is hot as his long claw-like fingers grabs them and binds them both with manacles. As they are escorted out, Nickolai comforts Senna and says, “This is how we handle ruffians in our town.” Deckard and Ghrakis (with wine in his manacled hands) are taken to the stocks of the town square and bound outside in the slightly rain evening. Breath, Ireena, Shep, Ismark, and the two children stay at the inn for the night.

Senna is escorted by Nickolai to their home. The nobles run upstairs to take care of what sounds like a cat and take Senna to a room upstairs. The room has leather bonds on the bed and Senna gets wide eyed. They encourage her that it’s not for her and that their sister, as they say, is “not right in the head, she thinks she’s a cat. Hence the bonds are for her room. We will take care of our sister for the night.”

Senna is worried but reassures them that she understands. She becomes more worried as they leave her to the windowless room and she hears the door locked from the outside, locking her in.

Madam Eva

Doru singled out the Tabaxi Cleric of the Catlord ripping into his throat and drinking from his open wounds. The party tried to stop him and brought him down as best as possible but they were too late, Breath of Wind was dead. The group continues to lay into the vampire with Father Donavich helping with holy water.

In the midst of the calamity, “Wind” has an out-of-body experience where he meets the Raven Queen. She claims his god, the Catlord, is only superstition and even if he did exist, his powers wouldn’t be able to reach in this otherworldly place. However, her powers do and she offers it to the catfolk. He takes her hand and is returned to the land of the living in the midst of battle, changed to a cleric of the Raven Queen and now a revenant: part mortal, part undead.

Ireena kills Doru on the steps as it ran away in fear from the face of Senna who last screamed, “I didn’t know! Forgive me, my lord!”. Donavich weeps at the dusty remains of his “son” and insists they leave at once. Shep looks at Wind in a new way knowing of his transformation.

They meet with the mercantile and tavern but don’t much luck finding information and items to buy there. The Vistani at the tavern insist they see Madam Eva at the Tser Pool. They also meet Ismark “the Lesser”, Ireena’s step brother. He drunkenly greets them and they convince him to come with them as they travel west to protect Ireena. Before leaving they also console Mad Mary who’s daughter, Gertruda, has run away from home. She fears the worst for her and the party says they will do their best finding her.

While traveling through the woods they are attacked by large Dire wolves and are able to kill most of them and drive the other away. Also, a skeletal horse and skeletal rider came out of the woods while they traveled the road; it seemed to be searching for something with an extinguished lantern in it’s hand. Deckard takes the rider down with a crossbow bolt but the skeletal horse gets away. Finally, a lady named Morgantha tries to sell her special pastries to the group along with some information about Strahd and his land. They buy one dream pastry and Senna feels drawn to eat this wonderful mincemeat pie. She does so and finds herself in a drug-like trance of euphoria. She has a wonderful dream of being home with her family until the party wakes her back to reality from her slumber and is that much more depressed.

They continue to the Tser Pool and find an encampment of Vistani who welcome them with wine, dancing and campfire stories. One mentions a story of an old wizard who came to this land over a year ago and tried to kill Strahd along with other Barovian revolters. He and many of the villagers were killed and cast into the Tser Falls.

The party then meets Madam Eva who knows who they are and was expecting them. She describes their only escape (other than the Vistani who have offered pricey potions to get through the deadly mists which Senna bought one) is release Strahd of his curse. She reads their fortune saying 5 important facts, the locations of 3 ancient relics: the Tome of Strahd, the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind, and the Sunsword. Also, a broken wizard will help them and that Strahd can be found on a balcony. With nothing more to say to them, Madam Eva retires to her bed, exhausted.

That night the group is able to sleep among the Vistani without any issues. The next morning Madam Eva’s tent is there but she is gone. The group continues north to explore to no avail the Tser Falls. After some backtracking and taking a different road, they come across a gallows. A woman is hung by a tree and for a moment, Senna sees herself in the face of the woman hung there. When she double takes, it looks like an unknown peasant. She also thinks that she sees multiple corpses hanging not far in the woods.

That early afternoon, they finally arrive at a crossroads to the north after passing over a tall bridge that spans over Tser Falls, one road leading east towards Castle Ravenloft, another heading south where they came from, and a third leading Northwest.

The Village of Barovia

The group decided to leave upon hearing the chanting. But once doing so they disturb the cult’s “god,” Lorghoth, the Decayer," a large, grotesque body made up of dozens of humanoid arms and legs that shambles to life. They are chased through the dungeon and many are almost eaten, but with tactical thinking they are able to defeat the monster. A husk of a baby is inside it as they realize this is Walter, the dead brother of Rose and Thorn. They lay the boy to rest and the remainder of the blob seeps into the floors.

But the house is not done with them yet. As they race to leave the Durst family home, scything blades and poisonous gas comes from all doors and fireplaces inside the home and every window is bricked up. They try and leave the home but are stopped once again by the ghosts who refuse for them to leave. Realizing it’s not the actual ghosts and just the cursed house itself, the group pushes through the ghosts and are able to break down the front door. They tumble to the now clear streets of the village of Barovia. A hand extends out to Shep, the same bard who he thought he saw kill someone, helps him to his feet and proceeds to welcome them all to Barovia with a lute jig.

The party catches their breath and they walk south west through the empty streets of the village and find themselves at what appears to be the burgomaster’s home. They knock and are told to go away by a female voice. They ask for Kolyan Indirovich as they have been tasked to save his daughter but are told that he is dead as the door opens and a beautiful young human woman appears. She introduces herself as Ireena, the daughter of the burgomaster. Senna is surprised and takes a knife to Ireena’s throat as the ranger shows that the two (Senna and Ireena) look exactly the same, asking what kind of witchcraft is this. Ireena is just as surprised and is able to calm the party down. She doesn’t know why but she does know that this land is full of mystery and death. She explains there home has been riddled with attacks from wolves and other horrible creatures of the night for the past few weeks. Her father died due to a heart attack a few days ago because of these attacks and strangely, the creatures immediately stopped attacking. She and her brother, Ismark, wish to bury him in the cemetery in town. The heroes agree to help after a good night’s rest there.

They do so but Deckard is awoken to a couple of hunters outside of Ireena’s home. He tracks what they are looking for and finds a small snow leopard on the edge of the village near the forest who has been hurt by the hunters. He heals the snow leopard and becomes quick friends with her and “Wind” approves, of course (though Wind knows that it’s not a snow leopard but in fact a baby saber-tooth tiger).

The next day they travel together on Ireena’s wagon and horse, “Lo’shad” (pronounced Low Shid). Ismark never came home that night so Ireena is a bit nervous. They pass a home that produces the whimpers of a woman inside and also a tavern that Ireena says her brother is most likely in. But they continue to the church. There they find the priest, Donavich, in prayer inside the church. Screaming can be heard from the cellar below saying, “Father, I’m hungry, please feed me!” The heroes are bewildered but Ireena is fixed on burying her father. Donavich is worried for Ireena more so than the death of her father for some reason. He explains to the group that she is being stalked by the Devil, himself and that her identity needs to be revealed now that her father is dead: He explains that she is adopted; she was found on the edge of the Svalich woods near the Pillarstone of Castle Ravenloft (home of Count Strahd). He agrees to bury her father if she and the party agrees to take her far away from the “eyes of the devil in his castle” as he points to Castle Ravenloft. Through his frustration he explains that his son, now chained downstairs and crying out to him, has been hungry every night for raw meat for the past few months that he has been home. He tells them that he came home only a few months ago after being gone a year as he tried to help a mysterious wizard try to kill Count Strahd in his castle. The wizard and his militia failed and now the spirits of the dead who have tried to take the devil’s life rise each night from his cemetery and march to Castle Ravenloft. He doesn’t know what happens when they get there but he does mention that he remembers seeing a similar beast like Breath of Wind with the spirits that rise and march at midnight.

Ireena agrees to go with the party who also agrees to take her far from here, hopefully to the Abbey of Saint Markovia in Krezk or the fortified town of Vallaki, both villages far to the west of here and much better off than Barovia is. The somber service happens outside in the cemetery for the Burgomaster and the party sees the common religion practiced here, a good god of the sun named the “Morninglord.”

Afterward a loud crunch noise can be heard coming from below the church when they go back inside. Donavich worries something has happened to his beloved son and searches for the key to the trapdoor that is locked. Unable to find it with the party, Ghrakis rips the trapdoor off and they all travel downstairs to find an emaciated human form chained to the wall: Doru, the son of Donavich. He yells at his father for not feeding him and that these new visitors are the plaything of the great Strahd. “He will come for her” as he points to Ireena, “This is his domain. He is the Ancient, he is the Land,” he screams as he bites his own thumbs off, slips his hands through the shackles and proceeds to pounce savagely onto the party.

Death House

The group wakes up after horrible nightmares, but Senna and Ghrakis are still in a deep sleep suffering from night terrors and are unable to be awakened. Confused, the remaining group continues to scour the home for the “monster” hoping their sleeping friends will be ok. They find themselves in the attic where they happen upon two small skeletons on the floor that were inside a boarded up and locked room. It appears to be Rose and Thorn, long since dead amidst their toys and belongings. Their ghosts appear as the heroes explore their room, instilling their fear of the “monster in the basement” on them. They insist the party to stay but once they try to leave, Rose possesses Deckard. Though not harmed, he is now insistent to be in charge of the group and find the secret door that leads to the basement. They are successful and promise the ghosts they will return for them.

A long spiral staircase goes from the attic to the cavern-like basement. They come across the crypts of the Durst family though most are empty, including one labeled for a third child of the Durst family, “Walter.” Other interesting rooms litter the very large and winding “basement” and they are attacked by horrible shadows, swarms of insects, and ghouls. Once attacked in the tight quarters with the ghouls, Sor’rel Stormcloak does his best to protect his friends but the ghouls devour him. Once the monsters are dead the heroes are too late to save their friend as he dies in their hands. A low roll of thunder rumbles above ground.

They take his body back up to the already sleeping heroes on the third floor and take another 8 hours to sleep. During the night though, the heroes suffer more horrible nightmares which barely gives them any rest. Also during the last watch, the gnome’s body twitches every so often even after a proper death prayer is given by Shep on behalf of the Raven Queen. The 3 who are still able to look in the caverns do so with Sor’rel’s body left upstairs as Shep promises to bury him outside when they get out of here.

After more attacks and continued searching deeper in the basement, the heroes find what appears to be a large ritual chamber with a large area of 2 feet of water surrounding a dais. Senna and Ghrakis join them after finally waking up from their horrible nightmares. They ask where Sor’Rel is and explain that they never saw him upstairs nor was there any blood on the table they left him on (which thoroughly freaks the others out). While arguing about whether the gnome is dead or not, Deckard approaches the dais and all of a sudden 13 black robed figures appear above the chambers, their chanting is loud and angry as they say over and over, “One must die! One must die! One must die!”

The Curse of Strahd

Around a damp campfire next to old man Razzle Frazz’s tree home, the children of the village (in the year 1410) listen to one of the scariest stories he has ever told them. He says this story is what gave him the ability to live for so long and how necromancy (a forbidden magic to him) was not involved.

—

The date is First Collect 3:1209 (aka 7/3/1209, The beginning of Autumn in Erryes). The countries have reset to their old ways; for instance, Midia and Urartu have divided into separate nations once again. As the Heroes of the Portal finished their quest only 2 months ago in denying access to the gods onto this plane there is a sense of calm and peace throughout the land. The calm is here even though many don’t believe in the tall tales of gods coming down to the world from their lofty heavens. Regardless, what is true, is that many teleportation portals known in the lands have become chaotic or outright inert due to these heroes’ actions. For example, Valin Ironfist and his family suffer as the Mines of Phandelver’s magic has receded. This is just one case of many throughout the world.

Other worldly news of note: The Temple of Hand, Foot, and Mind is now led by the great disciple of Master Ryosuke, Delad, due to the old man’s disappearance within the past year.

For Shep, Breath of Wind, Deckard, Senna Loot’sko, Ghrakis, and Sor’rel Stormcloak, life seems simple and boring for these adventurers as they sit in the “Goral Hostel.” The bar and inn is a small establishment that sits on the crossroads between the two large cities of Loacidian and Tyrus in the reestablished country of Midia; it holds no sway with either city as it’s a midway point between the two. Owned by Miss Liora, a bright and cheerful human lady who welcomes any newcomers in from the road, often giving free room to them.

The adventurers are given a letter from a traveler from an unknown land called Barovia. The letter reads that his Burgomaster of Barovia (Kolyan Indirovich) needs help from the adventurers. The group decides the next day to travel west through the Svalich woods to find Barovia and accept the call but Shep is very hesitant saying that only death awaits them there. Deckard insists as money seems to be no issue to pay for their troubles to help Ireena who is hurt there. The group decides to drop Shep at an orphanage on their way to Barovia. Two ravens follow the group as they begin their travels west; it must be an omen.

But before reaching the orphanage the group travels much farther than they were supposed to in the woods and, even with the guidance of two rangers, they somehow get lost in the foggy woods. Shep knows where they are as the gates of Barovia eventually loom in front of our heroes. Magic pervades from the fog as Deckard experiences that the fog can hurt you tremendously if you stay in it for too long. A raven (different from the original two) meets with Shep at the gates and begins to give him sight once again through the eyes of the raven. The raven begins to give him warlock magic as the Raven Queen has chosen this boy to pay his previous “debt” and return to the lands of his birth (as Shep describes it).

As they travel through the woods towards the village of Barovia they come across a dead body with a similar letter on the corpse. This letter is of a different insignia and handwriting yet comes from Kolyan Indirovich as well warning any travelers that come to the gate to turn back and never enter Barovia as it is cursed by a vampire for the past 400 years and that his adopted daughter, Ireena, has been bitten and suffers by the hands of this monster.

Once arriving in Barovia the mists lead them through the village streets. To two children on the street, Rose and Thorn, meet them and say there is a monster in their house and their parents tried to keep it in the basement but it got loose. The heroes search the creepy house and are attacked by animated armors and brooms that seem to be possessed by the house. Creepy books and letters are found as the owners of the house were a part of some kind of cult. While in the nursery of the third child, Walter, they are almost killed by a female specter. With wounds mounting and spells dried up for the group, they try to find sleep in the master bedroom on the third floor yet nightmares fill their heads for the rest of the night.

Final Curtain Call

The party is able to vanquish the last of the enemies before the large devourer consumes Ashborne. The play finishes as Beauregard’s mother makes her way to the city. She gets close to the king using her wily charms and she poisons him. Beauregard enters the throne room to find what his mother has done. The climactic battle of the play is between Beauregard and his mother. The two have a duel full of treacherous attacks (from his mother) and cunning counters (from Beauregard). In the end, his mother lands a blow that appears deadly. Beauregard uses his exceptional acting skills to pretend to be dying. When his mother comes near, he stabs her. The play ends with Beauregard sitting on the throne, ruling wisely over all the people, who love him dearly.

The play is a success but the party must make sure no one knows of the calamity outside so they offer a grand party in the theater after the show for the whole crowd. They warn the king and keep him safe as the Inheritors go to stop Dr. Important: the true mastermind to this whole fiasco. Captain Mae offers them a ride to his mansion on her airship that’s on the roof of the theater. They quickly get there while being peppered by warforged Sentinel attacks on the ground while Ardhorn and Valin take care of the theater and the king.

Once over top of Dr. Important’s laboratory all of the warforged in the area become a loud speaker (including Standard Bearer) for Dr. Important who says, "Testing, testing, 1…2…3, is this thing on? Ah, there we go, it works! Wonderful! I see you found me out Inheritors, so I will let you in on the secret: Thanks to your help in making me Warden, I have taken control from the Establishment! With your help we have given the warforged of this nation a purpose once again. They will decide who should live or die in this city for their enemies’ bigotry and hate! The wealthy give nothing to the poor and disenfranchised but now, the tables have turned! Standard, don’ you see? I’m helping your people. With your help, the city could be ours. Thanks to me, the warforged are the watchful eyes of the entire city. I applied the EVA magic when replacing those nasty explosives from your siblings. No longer are they living in fear. In fact, they are in power now as I am the everlasting keen eyes through their lenses. I can make sure no one hurts them ever again. So, what do you say? Will you join me in killing the king and the Wardens to start us off?

Standard gives a stern, “No,” and leaves it at that. The gnome sighs and says, “At least I get to try my new toy on you guys: THEROCKET-FORGED!” Suddenly a large warforged comes rocketing out of the mansion and flies towards the group. Captain Mae keeps the warforged Sentinels busy with her spell turret as the party attacks the giant warforged now magnetically stuck to the floor of their ship. The party also realizes the gnome wizard is inside the construct, shooting spells from within.

The party begins to drop like flies: Cade drops unconscious and Rhydian’s fey animals are destroyed. Captain Mae comes to Ashborne’s side for comfort but he can’t muster any to her. She asks, “Won’t your pen’s prophecy help us in this? ‘The only child of Neznarr would seek vengeance for his death?’” Ashborne looks confused as she slips a cutlass into his side. Her accent is gone as she continues with a cold look in her eyes, "You think you have what it takes to be like MY father? That is why I tested you, to see if you’re strong enough: the quill in the Sahuagin cave planted by the “mysterious” scarred man, or the mindflayer waiting for you in the barn, or the yochlol in the theater where you “rescued” me, or even the devourer tonight at the theater. All of these creatures have one thing in common: they come from my Father’s land. Blendis couldn’t even keep his calm when I told him how to infiltrate your group. He cared more about killing your mother. But I am different, the Maevia Inclemens spider lies in wait before pouncing upon her prey at the most opportune time. That time is now; I honor my father by finishing his business 40 years later. I will take away all that your whore of a mother loves: You." She continues her attack on Ashborne but with his magic he sends her flying across the deck. Vhalak tries to find a way to get the airship out of there but finds that Mae has locked the wheel into a permanent hold.

They continue to attack the warforged on the roof and the airship begins to burn up from the warforged Arcane Arquebus cannons. The assault continues when suddenly Mae pulls a spell scroll out and says, “I’ve been saving this disintegrate spell just for you. Watch, Felicia, as I take your son with me.” Once completing the spell she embraces the half-drow and his final words before falling to ashes is, “It would have been more poetic if this had happened in the play.” The two fall to a heap of ashes as Felicia screams in anger. To try and find an outlet for her rage, she pours arrows into the gnome wizard inside the rocket-forged. He gets out to try and run but before doing so he hits a button on the construct. The construct then fires up its pistons and rocket punches Vhalak off of the side of the airship hundreds of feet down onto the city. A fire elemental is summoned by Finethir to help but he loses control of it and the ember soul begins to ignite the gnome. The revolutionist dies clutching the orb that controls the warforged. The fire elemental is killed and the battle is won, but at a high cost: 2 Inheritors are dead, Ashborne and Vhalak. The orb is destroyed by Standard and the Warforged Sentinels stop their attack immediately.

2 weeks have passed; the Sentinels have cleaned up the mess. Warforged were taken into custody and their monitors removed (and Standard’s) thanks to the help of the Inheritors. King Celeborn continues his reign of Frostopolis and thanks the Inheritors by endorsing their theater to the whole nation of Lykovia. Many acts will come and go and the business will continue to do well for those that choose to stay. However, Ryosuke went crazy not long after all of that. The Inheritors kept trying to calm him down to do his work as a cook but he kept saying, “No, the story, it should be over now! The story is done! Quick, ask the old man to tell you about Strahd! Strahd! He knows!” The Inheritors (but not the children listening to Razzle Frazz’s story) are confused and decide to let him go officially.

When things have settled down it almost goes unnoticed that Razzle Frazz had died only a week after Ashborne’s show. Every Inheritor attends the small funeral with Hans there too. The service is not only for the old man, but also Vhalak and Ashborne. A short service made by a priest of Bahamut is performed.

Once over, Hans talks to them all, “I am sorry for the loss of your friends. Before Razzle Frazz passed, he had one last clause to add to the Will that I’m sure you will all approve of.” He reads from a legal parchment, “A gift is given to each of you: Valin Ironfist: Your debt has been cleared. The mines of Phandelver are yours to do what you will. I would suggest to sell it off immediately. Finethir Shinebright: While you were not an official Inheritor, I saw much dedication from you. Thank you. For that I have restored your tower to its rightful place in the North Ward. Also, your wand of polymorph has been fixed by me as well. Standard Bearer: You have grown to be your own person in this world so you have been given full citizenship here in Frostopolis. You have the freedom to leave as you have been pardoned of any warforged wrongdoings as well. Ardhorn: If you look at your leaf, your time has been bumped to a lot sooner to finally see and talk to Larue (from 37 years to 37 hours). You will have the option if you want to stay with her and her accomplice, Wendy, to work in the feywild. I was able to work my connections for that. Rhydian: Your house has been restored in Lykovia within your old village. Your name is no longer at risk of attacks from your enemies, they have been “paid” off in some way. You can return if you want. Sir Cade Derebont: Your time with the Gray Guard, I have a feeling, may be coming to a close. I know you wish to follow Favric in his footsteps as either head of the Royal Guard since Favric quit or to learn about the lycanthrope way from him. Both are dangerous jobs but I know you can handle them. Tell Hans which you prefer and he will make it so." Cade answers quickly that he will join Favric in Cush immediately and learn of the ways of the werebear. Felicia Stro’Upe: You have lost much in this world; all I can offer you is my apology for what happened to Ashborne and that Neznarr and his whole house has been fully eradicated from this world. If you return to the Underdark, you will find that to be true.

Finally, it is up to you now who will remain with the theater and if any of you want to sell or give your share to the others. Standard, Rhydian, Valin, and Finethir (who has been given Felicia’s share of the theater now) decide to stay and continue the business of the theater. Rhydian says he has to for at least a year to help Larue (but who knows how long he might stay). Ardhorn decides to take this opportunity to say his goodbyes to the party as he will help Larue in the Feywild; he’s always wanted to see (and talk) to Larue himself and he figures Rhydian will take care of the theater for him. Cade finds Favric and travels with him to continue their hunt for the Whispering Wind in the city of Kartan in the country of Cush. Felicia claims, in anger and utter depression, that there is nothing for her here and gives her share of the theater to Finethir, not even wanting the money that she might be entitled to. She leaves Frostopolis forever.

The Inheritors leave the graveyard with their future plans ahead of them as the snow begins to fall again. A large shingle falls from the top of a building not far from the graveyard but gracefully comes down as if affected by a feather fall spell, a ramification of the month of Entropy here as random large items are affected by this slight levitation magic. The rock falls and a man in a white cloak catches it as day descends into night. The figure strides up to the grave and opens the coffin of Vhalak and the mystery guest says, “Well, brother, I guess you came through and helped me one last time. I don’t know how Ryo did it, but he got your charred body for me from that lava-filled crypt of the theater. It was good to have your body already charred as they think anyone who dies with this sword is burned up in the process. He even knew to leave your body on the ground near the fountain for me where we fell as if he knew where to be at the right time. Huh. Thanks to Entropy, I didn’t die that night. But it’s best everyone thinks that. I need to be unknown in this city if I want to make a difference. With the Whispering Wind gone, more and more thieves’ guilds will try and rise up. I also don’t trust the king at all, where is his father anyway, the true king? But your death won’t be meaningless, Ashborne, I promise you that. This city is my cause. This city is my penance. This city…will know that Blue Hilt is no fairy tale.”

With that, he looks at Razzle Frazz’s coffin and begins to doubt. He opens it and a slight chuckle comes from the white cloaked swordsman as the snow falls on to an empty coffin with an illusion of a body of Razzle Frazz in it.

Back in the home of Razzle Frazz, the children are listening to him finish his story. He writes in a book with a familiar tendril quill and says, “And that, kids, is how I died!”

The children, a bit bewildered say, “But your alive.”

“Oh right, well…huh, I guess so.” Well, after seeing my son die by necromantic demons I swore I would never use it. Necromancy is an evil school of magic.

One girl says, “Then how did you survive if you’re not undead? That happened 200 years ago and half-elves don’t live that long!”

“Right, well, I’m trying to remember that story. Which one was it?”

“One child quietly says, “…Strahd.”

“Yes! That’s it! The Curse of Strahd!" He picks up a book already written, bound in black and red leather. We should start that one next. The reason I’m still alive today is what happened then so many years ago. But I warn you know, children, once I begin reading this one, you can never talk about the stories we have been discussing. Ok?” He looks for verbal confirmation from them all. “Ok then. Let us begin the Curse of Strahd.”

The Show Must Go On!

The heroes continue to attack the Whispering Wind. The rest of the Inheritors come to help but bring a fallen flock of Kenku with them as they continue the battle. Finally, the battle is won and Cannonball is killed by Favric. Vhalak saves the boy chained to the ground but he gets up and turns into a were-bear too and attacks the rogue out of instinct. Favric calms the boy down as he explains he is his protégé. Favric asks to burn all the lycanthrope bodies before the rest of the Sentinels come on the scene. The royal guard explains that no one knows of his lycanthrope existence, only Larue, his patron. He was there trying to convince the Whispering Wind to leave the city peacefully. He almost had it until the Inheritors showed up, but he was glad they came. Favric says his real job is to serve Larue first, then the king of Frostopolis. He helps the party by giving them a special magic dust which reveals who are lycanthrope when they are in humanoid form. He escapes before Sir Reginald gets there and the party is able to cover his tracks. The Sentinels are glad most of the Whispering Wind has either been killed or escaped and asks for help to get rid of the rest hidden within their organization. The party says they will help in a couple days if they can get all the Sentinels together so they can serve them a tankard of ale in honor of getting rid of all the were-beasts in their city. Valin will be able to concoct a great dwarven ale and add the dust to the whole brew. Reginald thanks them and they leave for home. On their way the pesky assassin sniper hits Vhalak with a poison tipped dart. He falls unconscious and she explains before they fight that he will die at midnight tonight from the poison unless they give her the rest of her payment that Cannonball owed her. Valin detects the poison and that what the gith says is true. The party is only given a short window to decide or else her other buddy attacks too. The party, hurt from the hard battle earlier, agrees to pay the 700 gold. She leaves with the money and leaves directions for where the antidote is, saying she will never be in this town again. They find it and Vhalak takes it and is cured.

A couple days go by and they perform the act of sniffing out the rest of the Whispering Wind within the Sentinels. They only find one left and he is taken into custody. He is interrogated and the group finds that he would be happy if he ended up in Kartan Prison in Cush as it seems that is where the rest of the Whispering Wind remains. The information is given to Reginald who will get it to the city officials of Kartan. Favric also finds out from the Inheritors that the Whispering Wind is centrally located in Kartan and says that he will be leaving his position as the head of the Royal guard in the next few weeks to find the rest of the thieves guild there.

With that, the heroes vanquish a thieves’ guild and prepare for the upcoming play for the king. 3 weeks go by and Ardhorn and Rhydian are teleported by Wendy to her office in the Feywild. She explains that they must protect the theater for one year now as that is the only access in all of Frostopolis where Melora’s Tears could be mined. If that is preserved without anyone knowing for a full year, the primal spirits will return to Frostopolis. They agree to help.

The first day of Entropy comes. The only thing that seems to have changed for the weather is that the snow stops for the first time in Frostopolis in over a year. The heroes prepare for the play and things are going smoothly as many nobles, rich people, wizards, Razzle Frazz himself, Captain Mae (of course) and the king enter the great theater for Ashborne’s epic play. The king warns Ashborne that the play must go well and without fail or else he will shutdown the theater for good.

Ashborne takes the stage for the lead in his play called, “The Heart Breaking Ballad of Beauregard, the Dispossessed Prince.” The play is about a young man named Beauregard. He is kept imprisoned by his overbearing and evil mother. He is portrayed as a bright, creative young man, but his mother’s coddling makes him a bit weak and sniveling. Through the early scenes, we see Beauregard want to go out to see the world, creating vivid tales of the outside, but always being told by his mother he must stay inside. During each of these scenes, Beauregard also asks who his father is, but his mother always yells at him and tells him she is the only parent he needs.

Finally after all the pestering, his frustrated mother tells Beauregard that his father is a crazy old hermit who lives out in the woods. Beauregard sneaks out that very night and finds the hermit. When In the final scene of Act 1, Beauregard speaks to the hermit, it is obvious the hermit is quite stupid. Through their conversation, it comes out that the hermit knew Beauregard’s mother once, but he is not the boy’s father.

Beauregard, using his cunning, spends Act 2, trying to get his mother to leave the house. He sets up various tricks and traps, but each fails in an amusing way. In one scene, Beauregard trains a squirrel to steal his mother’s necklace and run off with it, but the squirrel is only a few steps out when he is distracted by a female squirrel and Beauregard’s mother, after comically chasing the squirrels in a circle, retrieves her necklace. In the end, a traveling merchant comes through town. The merchant has a stash of a drug Beauregard’s mother was once addicted to. She buys the drug and passes out. The scene ends with Beauregard reading his mother’s diary and finding out his true father is a great and powerful king.

After the second act the group is together with Ashborne as he is resting before the final act. While there, an awkward exchange of forgiveness given is by Felicia to her son but he doesn’t respond or react. Suddenly the EVA in their backstage room (the only one working right now in the whole theater) comes on with Dewey in front of what appears to be the city of Frostopolis with burning buildings who says, “Mayhem and chaos erupts in the city tonight as Warforged Sentinels begin to lock down various noble houses, warden’s homes, and even King Celeborn’s own castle. Resources say they have called for total control of the city on behalf of their fallen brothers and sisters who have been ridiculed within the city. Non-waforged Sentinels have tried fighting back but have failed as the warforged seem to know their enemies every move. The watchful eye of these constructs goes unfettered. Who will save our city from their clutches? The king is nowhere to be found and each Warden, as you can see by our operators, has been threatened if anyone takes action against those horrible explodies!" With that a picture is shown on the display of all the Warden’s being taken hostage by the warforged. However, some the Inheritors notice that Dr. Important doesn’t seem too phased by all of this and is holding some kind of orb behind his back.

The Inheritors, being the only ones who saw this news report try and get Reginald to help (even though it’s his night off) but he doesn’t believe them. While some go to protect the king, the others find that warforged Sentinels are trying to break into the backstage of the theater during the final act.

Meanwhile, the final act opens 6 months later. Beauregard has run away and is living a happy life with his father, the King of All the Lands. The King is a wise and just man who is loved by the people of his kingdom. The two have bonded and the king is teaching Beauregard how to be a mighty ruler. In one scene, the King tells Beauregard how the queen only bore him daughters. When she finally gave birth to a boy, both the queen and the child died during labor. Beauregard’s mother was a concubine of the King and she must have run off when she became pregnant with him.

As the play draws closer to a close, Beauregard’s mother makes her way to the city. She gets close to the king using her wily charms and she poisons him. Beauregard enters the throne room to find what his mother has done. The climactic battle of the play is between Beauregard and his mother. The two have a duel full of treacherous attacks (from his mother) and cunning counters (from Beauregard).

Most of the heroes go on stage at this point of the play to stop the warforged from interfering with the play yet still make it seem like it’s part of the story. Every humanoid that enters the stage is dramatically changed via illusion wizards hired by the King who are making all of the costumes and special effects offstage thanks to their spells. So far, the play seems to be unaffected but soon, after most of the warforged are knocked out, a large Devourer is summoned onstage (no one sees who summons it). He rattles Ashborne unconscious and is swept into the rib cage of the fiend. Things look bad as the heroes fight the evil creature who claims it’s master says, “It’s feeding time!”

"Who do you trust, Ardhorn?"

The heroes switch up their roster to let others who were hurt get some rest. The rest continue further into the complex. They come across small fey creatures called Quicklings who are making the true myth out of the Melora’s Tears. They fear for their families and their lives as they are chained to their work. The heroes promise them help and they continue south finding some treasure and the cells where the quicklings are kept. Many other humanoids are kept in cells too; no one knows if they are alive or not.

They try to continue south but come across a cold iron door that can’t be broken. They search for the key by back tracking and, unfortunately, come across some werewolves, weretigers, and an old familiar pair of succubi (from the bank heist). They stop them all and even destroy the monster who broke Ardhorn’s rod. The rod, once retrieved from the werewolf, proceeds to sprout into many leaves and flowers, becoming a small cape for the halfling to wear. A magic mouth spell goes off and Wendy’s voice says, “19050, I’m glad you found your rod again, hopefully it’s new powers from Larue will help you in your quest!”

Once getting the key the group goes back to the quicklings but their good intentions are not fast enough for the quicklings. They go on a rampage and start attacking the crew with their knives, chains, and tools. The group knocks them out and ties them up in the room.

After another short rest, the heroes use the key on the large door to the south and come into a large throne room made for Cannonball. Shelves of liquor and True Myth litter the room along with an unconscious quickling and a chained up human boy knocked out on the ground. The pierced monstrosity that is Canonball sits on his pearl throne and talks to Favric in Sylvan, brokering a deal. Favric is stunned to see the heroes here and Cannonball shouts in Common while raising his large flail, “It seems you have been followed by the pesky Inheritors. No matter, my son’s death will be avenged by my hand.” The others come to his aid as battle ensues.

The heroes are hesitant to hurt Favric so they focus fire on the other known enemies. Finally, Favric morphs into a great werebear and walks next to Adhorn and says, once again, “Who do you trust, Ardhorn?” He then slashes his large claws into Canonball as the heroes join forces with the werebear.

Melora's Tears = True Myth

The heroes return to the theater, Cade is cured of his lycanthrope once again and the group sees Dr. Important. They give him the encoded books and ask for his help in decoding them. He agrees but says it will take several weeks.

One week passes and the Inheritors go to see King Celeborn in his castle as per requested of Favric. The arrogant king is somewhat interested in meeting them so he can gloat of his exploits for building such a large city. The group asks why the druids have left the city and why many animals do not live within the city. He’s absent minded about that but does explain that the city has made a name for itself because of the ore, Melora’s Tears, in the mines not far from the city that power the spells of the wizard’s guilds in order to build the city; he thinks maybe they left because of these crystals. The heroes are able to see that these arcane crystals are also used to create the highly addicting drug, “True Myth.” The heroes ask for him to shut down the mine and he is happy to do so as long as the popular Ashborne creates a play to be performed in his honor during the month of Entropy (only weeks away now). The group agrees though when Ardhorn brings up the fact that the Whispering Wind are the ones who are somehow getting a hold of the crystals in order to make the drugs, King Celeborn is not happy and has him forcibly removed from his court. Favric meets him and Ardhorn starts claiming he and everyone in this castle is in on the drug racket. Favric rolls his eyes and before leaving he says, “Who do you trust, Ardhorn? I am afraid your list seems awfully short.”

After handling some dealers and beggars on the streets (and Ashborne magically stealing people’s shadows in order to disguise himself as his prey) they find that True Myth is hard to find these past few weeks. It turns out that the mines are all dried up of Melora’s Tears. Now the thieves guild will have to find other ways to make it. Razzle Frazz imparts some knowledge to them and they go home where they wait for Dr. Important’s notes.

Another two weeks pass (Cade is tasked by his Grayguard group to take care of the borders of the city from orc invasions during this time) and the heroes get the information from the gnome mage. They find out that the guild will start finding other places to make True Myth (one of them being Valin’s own mines in Phandalin) though they plan on staying here in Frostopolis to provide their clientele. They find out the Whispering Wind’s leader, Cannonball, will be there at their main headquarters (a small clothing shop basement) tomorrow during the patrol route of the rogues who are posing as Sentinels that the Inheritors plan on following.

The group gears up that night with potions and scrolls at a local magic shop and the next day they follow the patrol: the same 3 guys who roughed up half of the Inheritors. The rogues go through the secret entrance (an outhouse) behind a clothing shop. A minute later, a few of the party members follow while the rest wait outside so as not to surprise the enemy all at the same time.

The party follows their tracks through some dark corridors in this large factory basement. They come across a large room full of bones and a locked door with a switch next to it. Ardhorn, not thinking, pulls the switch and while nothing happens to the door, 3 bone nagas rise from the fallen humanoid bones and a battle ensues. The party finishes off the monsters but the door remains shut.

Finmiss' Laundromat

The group explores the remains of Blue Hilt’s headquarters. After some research of journals and news clippings from the past few hundreds of years that Frosthaven/Frostopolis has been around, Cade finds that Blue Hilt was never just one person. In fact, after the hundreds of years that it goes back it was too many to count. One would come across Blue Hilt’s lair and take the shawl to protect the lands of Lykovia. However, many died due to their enemies (99%); they more often would hurt the ones they loved first before killing Blue Hilt. When one dies, their body was found consumed by fire unrecognizable by the authorities and the Blue Hilt items would disappear and reappear here in the caves. It’s obvious to see that the cowl of Blue Hilt is a dangerous mantle to put on. The most notable Blue Hilt Cade found in the journals was one who took the persona and went to the country of Cush to aid with some bandits in stealing for an evil rich merchant in a small town called Elderwood (Refer to Chapter 39: Elderwood).

After searching everywhere the group decides to try and use the water basin with Razzle Frazz’s name on it. Upon drinking the water in the basin their body is frozen and destroyed where their remains are taken up in a snowstorm and their bodies are magically reformed outside the alleyway of their theater (painful but effective).

The group goes to bed that night after hearing from Standard Bearer (who was fixing their sentries at Dr. Important’s lab) that the Sentries have been repaired. Just in time too, as they theater is slightly under attack by a few more kenku hired by the Whispering Wind. Stan also mentions that Dr. Important will be starting a new initiative to help the sentinels and gain respect for the warforged race by placing their metal friends on all of the Sentinels’ patrols. In the next few weeks, everyone will see their achievements.

The next day the group goes to Finmiss’ Laundromat, a gnomish steam powered contraption that cleans clothes for the business. But before getting there the group saves a child and woman from a burning building. Turns out the woman’s husband was a wizard who messed up a conjuring spell and summoned powerful fire elementals who proceeded to kill the wizard and burn their home down. Thankfully, using the new found haste powers of Blue Hilt’s sword, Vhalak and the crew rescue the toddler and vanquish the elementals. Vhalak is a bit choked up in all of this.

After some reconnaissance at the laundromat, Vhalak finds in one of the buildings a false bottom chest that descends further below. But before they can do anything about it, several wereboars track the changling’s scent and proceed to fight the group claiming they are snooping around where they shouldn’t be. The group easily kills them all and begins to find any info they can. They grab a couple encoded books from the secret room but before they interrogate their prisoner a familiar crossbow wielding gith assassin shows up and throws an incendiary bomb to permanently silence the prisoner and runs away from the group.

As for the rest of the inheritors, they try to outrun the sentinels but, realizing they will never leave anyone behind, they go back for drunk Ryosuke. The Sentinels are able to catch up to them and demand an explanation. Cade tries to persuade them but their true colors shows as they morph into werewolves to try and stop the party. The party kills one and the other runs away.